Venetian blind headrail



Nov. 3, 1953 B. WALKER 2,657,747

VENETIAN BLIND HEADRAIL Filed June 17, 1950 INVEN TOR.

Patented Nov. 3, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE VENETIAN BLIND HEADRAIL Brooks Walker, Piedmont, Calif. Application June 17, 1950, Serial No. 168,716

4 Claims. (Cl. 160-168) This invention pertains to a new and novel construction for a Venetian blind head rail, in which a wooden head piece is used that has been milled out to receive a small diameter rotating tilting device, which can be of wood, and which provides for a cord lock and, in general, encloses all of the mechanism, allows the top slat to be full length similar to those used on closed metal head rails, and can be classified in the economy blind group or the war type blind. This could be particularly applicable to construction where the use of metal for head rails is restricted because of the need of these materials for war uses. The blind includes a construction for turning the lift cords through drilled and reamed holes in bridges left in the head member under the tilting device, and thereby eliminates the cost of including pulleys. It involves a direct tilting device which is self-adjusting by having a slipping drive under the upper looped ends of the ladder tapes. The blind is very easily serviced and assembled, and should be very inexpensive to produce.

Other features and advantages of the construction will be more clearly pointed out in the attached specification and claims.

I have illustrated my invention by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view, partly cut away, showing one form of the invention.

Figure 2 is a sectional view of the head rail and upper slats taken at section 2-2 of Figure 5.

Figure 3 is a sectional view through the head rail showing the upper slat taken at section 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a top plan view of the head rail construction shown in Figure 1.

Figure 5 is an elevation view of the lower portion of the blind with a partially cut away section through the center of the upper slat and through the center of the head member, as shown in Figures 1 and 4.

Figure 6 is a sectional view through the head member, slats, and bottom rail with the center section cut away taken at section 6-6 of Figure 5.

Figure 7 is a sectional view of the head rail and adjacent slats taken at section 1-! of Figure 5.

In all figures, like numerals of reference refer to corresponding parts.

In Figures 1 through 7, I have shown a head rail l0, preferably made of wood or some millable material or plastic, in which is mounted a rotatable direct tilting rod H which may be either of solid metal, tubular metal. wood, or plastic. tilt rod H has wound thereon tiltcord I4 at the left hand end; with three or more turns; and, preferably, with a center turn anchored to the tilt rod as by a cotter pin, or other suitable means of anchoring. The tilt rod It is mounted in rectangular metal or composition washers 8, shown at both sides of the tilt cord l4 and at both sides of the ladder tapes 20 and 2|. It may. however, only be necessary to use one supporting washer at the tilt cord location and one at each of the ladder tape supporting positions, and such washers or supports could possibly be made of wood, wire, or other suitable material if there were a shortage of sheet metal or other stock. A bridge I0 is preferably left underneath the por tion of the tilt rod II where the ladder tapes 26 and 2| are supported, and this bridge Ill has a drilled and reamed hole which acts as a smooth turning radius and guide for the lift cords 3i] and 3|. The bridge may preferably be drilled and machined from the original solid wood of head rail in, or may be a wooden insert or plastic insert set into a milled recess, as shown at Illfl in Figure 5. If bridge section If is formed from the solid material of the head rail I, it would probably be necessary that the upper loop of the ladder tape which rides over the tilt control rod ll be stapled, welded, sewed, or secured to the other side member of the ladder tape to form a suitable loop after a portion of the loop has been placed over the tilt control rod 1 I If the bridge is an insert form, such as lflfl, the loop can be preformed on the tape, the tape lifted up through the hole lllg which is milled in the head rail adjacent each ladder tape, the bridge inserted, and then the tilt rod ll inserted through the loop for assembly. The tilt control cords l l are preferably located in an enlarged milled section lflh and dropped down through drilled and reamed holes llle to guide the tilt cords preferably outside of the edge of the slats 5, as best shown in Fig ures 1 and 7. Tilt control mechanism l3 may be suitably secured to the head rail as by screws or nails [3a and [3b, and may be of any conventional or suitable construction. The tilt control rod may be prevented from drifting by suitable nails or pegs I00 which may be inserted after assembly. Tilting of the blind is controlled by pulling on one or the other of tilt cords H, which provide suificient rotation for the tilt control rods so that the ladder tapes 20 and 2| are fully controlled for full closure of the slats in either direction.

By this construction, I have provided a blind in which a head member can be premilled with the groove Illa adapted to receive the tilt rail 1y :rect nei la i grm .rof saideheed trail,- --d' sp0sed rwithm aid rehannel a right L angular 1;rela.t, i on theretoaandmawhich 3,53idgtilbfl0l1th0b10d :is rotat ble :Jbumalled, longitudinally tspaced :pair mi dewnwandlyxadivergmgirecesses. inztsaid 3 and the lift cords in the lower portion thereof, and which can be readily milled for the recesses lllg to pass the ladder tapes, the recess lllh for the tilt cords, and Hid for the cord lock. The tilt rail may be readily mounted by pressing in supporting washers 8. The outward appearance of the blind does not disclose any of the mechanisms, and being wood, it can be mounted readily, he i siq hi or uts d lmgser is practically not metal gused on {the i-blind which makes it particularly adaptable to construction in war time when metals are restricted, and pipvides a construction that can be readily manufactured with most existing venetiagrgggzg d yggodworking machinery. It has the adi antage of from a usual head rail, and QIjQYAQQSQ yIQght FJQ- sure at the end of the top slats which is not present in most of the conventional tilt rail under head rail type of Venetian blind construction common-an tb atraid tod y- Q he zad rentaee m i h srco stmetion wil abe elaim a m a i m imen ie il-1 7 Vene an in r zlleasi railzoffi en na cras isect oneand havhanne sextend ne a10litl1dil1fi1 y 20f stand ins ' penin fih ous ith manne tam and opposite end tb mofsa :Jli 901 1 150 r dpd sposed within 1andext nd ualen i udinallyrof said channellin- 'termediate cits "rbottpm wa'll rand athe 21101 (wall ectang ular shearing :members head rail :oneniraga throughgthe 1=bettom walls roof said; channel eangdesaidzhead; mileazpair :ofzladder 530 Number tapes, the side members of each tape extending through a pair of said recesses and having a looped upper portion directly engaged with said tilt control rod.

2. The structure according to claim 1 together with a peg supported in the bottom wall of said channel and projecting upwardly into engagement with each end of said tilt control rod for estrain n men u he eo a chan- 3; The structure according to claim 1 together with a tilt control cord having in its intermediate portion a plurality of turns encircling said tilt ggontrol rod adjacent one end thereof, and

315 said rectan g u1ar bearing members being disnot requiring a worm gear tilter hanging-flown -=posed in' pairs, with the members of respective gpairs g beirgg disposed on opposite sides of the turns insaid cord and adjacent opposite edges of theside members of said ladder tapes.

4. The structure according to claim 1 together with azbridgesmemberi'beneath theiloopeda upper zportionicfaeachiladdera-tape and tawhosezropposite aside iwa'llsrprovide theaaidiacentr side walls o'filsaid :reoesses, abridge 'zmembers irproviding zguides :forha liftingccord ;Re ,erenc =z Cit.ed: mim efi 20 th atent um'run sra'rns PATENTS iiliame 'Dat v2,0 8, 5 i-Ku n L fla -7.." O. t. .120,' 1 2,1323921 QMintz m ;O.'ct.f 11, 193.8 2182;804 ,Dec. .112, 193.9

.2FQREIGNLfPATENTS Number Country Date L097 Great Brita-in 1 864 

